Amazing Spider-Man #77

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[onsokumaru]

What the hell happened to Pichellis art? This is nothing like what she used to do on Ultimate Spider-Man.

[blues32]

Well, the Aunt May looks a lot more like the Ultimate Aunt May...which is a pretty funny thing to say. "The ULTIMATE Aunt May!"

[thatnickguy]

I'm guessing one of two things:

1) Her style has changed in the past 10 years, since her time on Ultimate Spider-Man.
2) A different colorist. In Ultimate Spider-Man, the colorist was Justin Ponsor. Here, it's Joe Caramagna. A different colorist can make a significant difference to an artist's work.

Or maybe a combination of both. It thought perhaps a different inker, but the listings for both this issue and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 have Pichelli inking her own work.

[blues32]

Hrm...who would Aunt May call for this? ...please tell me she doesn't call Otto. I mean, HOW would she do that? I doubt his number is listed or he's in her contacts.

Did MJ try Reed Richards? How about Bruce Banner? Can she get a hold of Wolverine? There's at least a handful of mutants on Kraoka with healing powers. Elixir would be on the top of my list. How about hopefully-still-reformed Norman Osborn? ...nah, let's not risk that one. Point is, Peter has a LONG list of friends who could help him. Granted most are hard to get a hold of, but I bet Ben Grimm is fairly easy to get a hold of and he can get Reed.

Ooh, how about Flash? Or Eddie? Symboites are great healers. Especially Eddie because, well, King in Black and all that.

[cyberghostface]

lol it actually is going to be Otto.

https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/OCT210799

[tinygaylaura]

I have so many questions about how Aunt May has Otto Octavius's home phone number

[mastermahan]

We can pretend it's not for booty calls, but really, we all know that's what it's for.

[arilou_skiff]

Yep. Aunt may fucks, wether you like it or not.

[zachbeacon]

Darn right she does!

She was totally the reason Nathan Lubensky was in that chair, wasn't she?

[blues32]

I can't imagine the woman who is known for having a very weak heart should be getting up to such things.

[janegray]

Can you truly not see the value in a man with six hands?

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Six hands, yes. Two hands and four mechanical claws? That's another matter.

[mastermahan]

Like those things don't have a vibrate function.

[cainofdreaming]

They come with many useful features. And attachments.

[blues32]

That's Machine Man. Otto Octavious wouldn't add such frivolous functions to his arms. It would be far too demeaning if it was ever discovered. No one would take him seriously again and when you're already a short, doughy looking man with a bowl cut to do Moe Howard proud, you can't afford to have any further deductions from your "cool points".

He really should be trying to get into better shape. His body literally died because he was an overweight scientist getting punched by people with super strength...or, in the case of Daredevil and the like, people in great shape and well trained. I mean, he was once slammed around by the Hulk.I don't care how much he was holding back, it's the Hulk. Or at least put on some armor. Or use Lady Octopus's personal force field idea. I don't care how snazzy he looks in a white suit.

[blues32]

Gaaaaah...! ...then again, if Peter's illness is the result of radiation, Octavious IS the guy to ask...but still HOW did she contact him?!

[deh_tommy]

Imagine if Ben has to sell his memories or something to Mephisto so Peter never fell ill.

[onsokumaru]

All she has to do is whisper "I am wearing sexy underwear and I feel lonely" and Otto will knock at the door in less than 60 seconds.

[super_fly]

I instantly thought: she's got Mephisto on speed dial

[arilou_skiff]

I do note that in his specific discipline Otto is better than Reed. Reed himself had to contact him during one of Sues pregnancies, IIRC.

[cainofdreaming]

So, is Aunt May going to sell her marriage to save Peter?

[super_fly]

Specifically her marriage to Ben

Bam: Uncle Ben is back baby! #bestworstideaever

[cainofdreaming]

Next issue: Uncle Ben, the Gangster Supreme or Great Power What?

[coldfury]

Okay, on one hand I appreciate them tying into current events. "Strange can't help, he's 'dead'."

On the other, Mary Jane has *lived in Avengers Tower*, and has Jarvis' phone number. I mean, between the FF and the Avengers, MJ should have some options besides "Tony Stark was busy". Hell, Miles should know some people.

I'm not really clear on May's status. Does she remember living in Avengers Tower? Does she know Peter's ID at this point??

Glad Felicia seems to be checking in, at least. Which is weird to say considering she was, you know, trying to straight up kill Miles not too long ago.

I wonder what's going on with Ben, they're clearly setting something up with his memory loss.

[tinygaylaura]

Nothing that happened during that garbage era for Felicia's character counts as canon as far as I'm concerned

[blues32]

Miles knows a couple people that could help, sure. Nadia Van Dyne and Amadeus Cho are good candidates. And Reed Richards should definitely be one of the first to turn to. Peter is great friends with the entire Fantastic Family. ...well, maybe not so much Valeria.

As for Ben...two theories come to mind. Either the Beyond company is using the Spider-Man costume they designed to slowly wipe his memory (thus making him the perfect corporate tool) or he's suffering from a neural degenerative condition brought on by his clone status. The Reanimation tech Warren came up with (and then Ben "perfected" wasn't never had any long term successes up until this point.

[beyondthefringe]

That's the problem with characters existing in a shared universe--how do you ever establish any sort of danger for them when they have 100 other heroes on speed dial, and there's a dozen different miracle cures in every vending machine?

Sometimes we just have to nod and accept that our hero just has to go about something on his own, or with limited resources. In this case, we've established that at least some of Peter's usual and more esoteric contacts--the ones Mary Jane is familiar with anyway--are unavailable or indisposed. Leaving aside the questionable status of her and May's time in Avengers Tower and how much of that happened post-OMD, they've ruled out Doctor Strange and Tony Stark (but hey! They acknowledged Ben's appearance in Iron Man, so I was right!)

But I do like the idea of going to Otto Octavius for something radiation related, because he's still an acknowledged expert in the field... and, as terrifying a prospect as it sounds, and not that -May- would know it, he may also be a foremost expert in -Spider-Man biology-. (Others I'd lump into that category might include, by virtue of experience, Curt Conners and Michael Morbius, both of whom are unreliable at best and status dubious at the moment...)

We have to remember that Spider-Man isn't universally beloved in the superhuman field, that he doesn't share his identity freely, that Mary Jane doesn't necessarily know how to get in contact with a lot of people (the X-people in particular may be harder than usual thanks to the Krakoan isolationist philosophy, and how many people even know about specific mutant healers...)

Reed is an expect on cosmic radiation issues. Bruce Banner is an expert on gamma radiation. Hank Pym was an expert on size-manipulation. For all that we treat comic book scientists as all-purpose, it's nice to remember that many of them are still specialists in some ways.

In the end, there's a lot of logistical narrative hoops to jump through to establish even a temporary sense of crisis for Peter, otherwise there's no story. And I'm looking forward to the part where Otto shows up, MJ says WTF, and May just shrugs knowingly.

[thanekos]

That's the problem with characters existing in a shared universe--how do you ever establish any sort of danger for them when they have 100 other heroes on speed dial, and there's a dozen different miracle cures in every vending machine?

By not writing for nitpickers who think that their efforts to reconcile the complications and contradictions of an ongoing shared universe should be the first priority of every new work produced in that universe - who need every new story they read to devote a non-trivial amount of time to that priority before it does anything else, because otherwise they won't feel like the work they have a previous and continuing investment in appreciates their efforts of reconciliation?

[blues32]

You kidding? The super human community (outside of the villains, I guess) love Spidey. He's fist bumped Wolverine. Unironically. Oh, he can be annoying at times, but those that know him have extreme amounts of respect for him. Becoming an Avenger really branched out his connections.

While Reed specializes in cosmic radiation, he's also far more qualified to diagnosis Peter than any of these doctors and undoubtedly has access to better forms of life support. Of course, he could be off world right now. God only knows with Reed.

[akodo_rokku]

I mean if this is following the canon established for the Beyond Corporation in Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers - basically they're Chaotic Neutral Beyonders - something altogether weirder might be going on.

[sinisterlink]

How hilarious would it be if Aunt May ended up making a deal with Mephisto to save Peter’s life?

[zachbeacon]

I've missed smart May so much.



So Ben just walks around unmasked as Spider-Man while wearing the face of an infamous tech CEO?

( Seriously, that was something you could get away with when Peter was just some guy but the Parker Industries era ruined it for Ben and Kaine)

[blues32]

Kaine could get away with it now a days. All those veins and scars can really make it hard to tell he looks like Peter Parker.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Probably just "hey, anyone ever tell you that you look like Peter Parker?"

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I think I'm better looking, if I'm being honest. Wouldn't you agree?"

[zachbeacon]

I mean, the way you carry yourself counts for a lot (yet another reason I can totally buy the Clark Kent thing) and - while Ben has been all over the map personality-wise - Kaine does come off a lot more confident than his "brothers".

It's probably an act because I can't imagine combining two decades of Peter's memories with everything else in Kaine's life wouldn't also result in another necrotic mess but we are who we pretend to be.

[blues32]

As I understand it, the memory transfer didn't turn out so well. That's why Kaine isn't very science inclined. Both Peter and Ben are brilliant. And he's not very good with that whole "with great power there must come great responsibility" thing. Which actually probably makes him slightly less necrotic than Peter. Far less of a guilt complex.

[sabertoothlotus]

you'd think that, but I pretty much called it the first time he showed up in costume during the Clone Saga.

[zachbeacon]

It took me a little longer (largely because of the size difference) but, between seeing what clone degradation looked like and realizing that his powers were just Peter's turned up to 11, it became pretty obvious pretty fast.

[zachbeacon]

Wait, when did Kaine get hit with the ugly stick again?

[blues32]

Alas, yes. After the Spider-Verse event, he lost The Other. Without it, his clone degeneration has kicked back in. He's all veiny again.

[beyondthefringe]

But Ben dies his hair blonde and in comic books, everyone is a little faceblind.

[zachbeacon]

Given the number of major artists who only draw a half dozen faces, maybe there's an in-universe reason for that.

[cainofdreaming]

Hey, he's got a dye job so he's good unless he runs into Daredevil.

[blues32]

How HAS he never run into Daredevil?

[scorntx]

Given what tech CEOs do in real life, seems like something Ben could easily get away with, and no-one would bat an eyelash.

"Peter Parker Dyes Hair Blonde, Pretends To Be Super-Hero."

[blues32]

Eh, nobody cares about Peter Parker anymore. His company is kaput.

[shakalooloo]

"I will not leave this room in case something happens."

"I am now off to make some house calls. I'm sure nothing will happen in my absence."

[janegray]

Tbf, she says that she won't leave for any "trivial" reasons. Fetching somebody who could save Peter's life is a pretty good reason.